June Cummings, executive director of Lenoir/Greene United Way, accepted the check. The funds will be used to support human service agencies in the community.

Sequestration threatens early childhood programs

Head Start is a federal program that promotes the school readiness of children ages birth to 5 from low-income families by enhancing their cognitive, social and emotional development. More than a million children are served each year by Head Start programs.

June Cummings, executive director of Lenoir/Greene United Way, accepted the check. The funds will be used to support human service agencies in the community.

Sequestration threatens early childhood programs

Head Start is a federal program that promotes the school readiness of children ages birth to 5 from low-income families by enhancing their cognitive, social and emotional development. More than a million children are served each year by Head Start programs.

The Office of Head Start, within the Administration of Children and Families of the Department of Health and Human Services, awards grants to public and private agencies on a competitive basis to provide these comprehensive services to specific communities.

The Budget Control Act planned in August 2011 to raise the federal debt ceiling and respond to increasing deficit spending threatens early childhood education. Part of the plan includes automatic budget sequestration which, barring any changes, on Jan. 2 will be an 8.2 percent across-the-board cut in discretionary programs and many mandatory programs.

“According to the 2012 National Kids Count published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, one in five children live below poverty in the United States, and the eight southeastern states we represent rank 34-50 nationwide in the category of children’s economic well-being,” said Myra Ingram, executive officer at the Region IV Head Start Association. “It is impossible for Head Start and Early Head Start grantees to absorb an 8.2 percent reduction in funding without reducing the number of children served, which would have an immediate and devastating impact on vulnerable families in our region and across the country.”

For North Carolina, this means 2,146 children would lose Head Start slots and 447 jobs would be lost. The N.C. Head Start Association — which represents more than 21,000 children, almost 5,000 staff and 57 member programs — urges citizens to join its members in communicating with Congressional leaders to avert sequestration through a bipartisan and balanced approach to deficit reduction.